The Pittsburgh Steelers may have won Sunday night’s game against the Seattle Seahawks in overtime, but that did not stop head coach Mike Tomlin from remaining incensed toward the officials about how the final seconds of regulation were handled.
Tomlin fired off about the refs in his postgame press conference for stopping the game to review whether or not DK Metcalf’s 12-yard reception was indeed a catch, allowing the Seahawks field goal unit more time to prepare for the kick.
“I hated it,” Tomlin said, per ESPN. “I hated it. I cannot believe that game was stopped to confirm catch/no catch in that moment. That’s all I’m gonna say. It was an embarrassment.”
Metcalf caught a pass from Geno Smith when Steelers cornerback James Pierre knocked the ball loose, allowing for Seattle receiver Freddie Swain to recover in bounds.
This forced Seattle to rush to the line of scrimmage with no timeouts and spike the ball with one second left, but the refs blew the whistle as Smith was spiking the ball to review the play.
The review determined it was a catch by Metcalf and the clock reset to three seconds to allow for the Seahawks to spike the ball and bring the field goal unit out.
Josh Myers then nailed a 43-yarder to tie the game and send it into overtime.
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While the Seahawks would have still been able to get the kick off regardless of the review, the field goal unit would not have had the extra time to prepare for such a high-pressure kick and it would have been a more chaotic situation for them to succeed.
Cameras showed an incredulous Tomlin reacting to the officials when they explained the review.
After the Steelers had won the game in overtime on a 37-yard field goal from Chris Boswell, a reporter heard the head coach still hot over the end of regulation prior to the postgame press conference.
Tomlin will address the media again on Tuesday. Whether or not he will be fined by then remains to be seen.
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